2019 AFL Women’s fixture unveiled

THE 2019 AFL Women’s fixture has been announced, with two conferences set to take to fields across the country from February.

Conference A features the Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Adelaide Crows and Fremantle. Conference B includes the Brisbane Lions, Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants, Collingwood, Carlton and Geelong.

For the first time, AFLW games will be played at Marvel Stadium, with a double-header set to take place in Round 6. Collingwood will also return to its spiritual home, Victoria Park, hosting games in Round 2 and Round 7.

Meanwhile, Carlton has been dumped from its Round 1 season opener against the Pies, with the latter instead set to take on Geelong at GMHBA Stadium. On the same night, Adelaide will begin its AFLW season with a clash against reigning premiers, Western Bulldogs at Norwood Oval.

Each team will play seven home-and-away games, followed by a finals series that will go for two weeks. The top two teams in each conference will play off in the preliminary finals, and the winners of those games will go head-to-head in the following week’s Grand Final. The team who finished first in conference A will face off against the second-ranked team in conference B in the first preliminary final, while the top-ranked conference B team will play against the second-ranked conference A team in the second preliminary final.

Strangely, the two expansion clubs, North Melbourne and Geelong will not face off against each other in the home-and-away season.